Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/281

 Proof tJiat Columbus was Born in 1451 271 for a debt^ ; therefore, so we are told, he was not then twenty-five )-ears of age, for, had he attained those years, he would not have required their permission ; consequently he was born less than twenty-five years before that date, in other words, after August 26, 1447. Again, on August 7, 1473," Columbus authorizes his mother to consent to a sale which his father wishes to make ; this proves, so it is alleged, that he had attained then the great majority of twenty- five years, as otherwise he could not have given the said authoriza- tion, whence it follows that he was born before August 7, 1448.^ If Columbus was not twenty-five years of age on August 26, 1472, but was so on August 7, 1473, he was necessarily born between August 26, 1447, and August 7, 1448. Yet another calculation. On May 25, 1471,* Columbus was not twenty-five years of age, because on that date his mother legally binds herself without his intervention. On March 20, 1472,^ he witnesses a will ; therefore he had then attained the great majority, and consequently he was born between ]Iay 25, 1446, and March 20, 1447." The error in these apparently very clear and simple demonstra- tions is that they are based on questionable data. It is not by any means clear that it was because he was a minor that Columbus re- quired the authorization of his parents in order to render himself liable for a debt in August, 1472.' It is not satisfactorily established that Columbus on August 7, 1473, intervened without the sanction of his father, for the very nature of the deed then in question pre- supposes in fact that sanction.* It does not follow from the fact that his mother on May 25, 1471, agreed to the sale of property under her marriage settlement without her son's consent that he was not then of a legal age to give it. In addition to the point's being obscure in itself, Columbus may have been absent at the time. Finally, the fact that he witnessed a will on March 20, 1472, ^ Docnmenti relativi a Cristoforo Colombo, no. 44, in Raccolta Colombiana, part II., vol. I, also in our Real Birth-Date, p. 18, and in our £tudes, p. 220. 'Document!, no. 51 : Real Birth-Date, p. 19; Etudes, p. 221. ' Desimoni, Quistioni Colombiane, in Raccolta, part II., vol. 3, p. 23. ' Documenti, no. 41 ; Real Birth-Date, p. 16; Etudes, p. 220. ' Harrisse, Christophe Colomb, I. 227. 'According to the Genoese law of 1414 this authorization was required at any age, so long as regular emancipation had not been granted. Desimoni, Quistioni, p. 33 ; Real Birth-Date. p. 25 ; Etudes, p. 224. 'See Real Birth-Date, pp. 61-63, and Eludes, pp. 244-246.
 * Documeitti, no. 38; Real Birth-Date, p. 15; Etudes, p. 219.